Nevis - Notable Natives and Residents

Notable Natives and Residents

Alexander Hamilton, the statesman and one of the founding fathers of the United States, was born on Nevis around 1755, and spent a significant part of his childhood there. His father was a trader from Scotland, his mother was from Nevis. The place of his birth currently holds the Nevis Island Assembly Chambers and the Museum of Nevis History.

The Duchess of Bronte, Frances Nisbet (1761−1831), is best known as the wife of British hero 1st Viscount Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson, of Battle of Trafalgar fame. She was a planter's daughter from Nevis, whose rich and influential uncle, John Herbert, was the President of the Council of Nevis. When she met Captain Horatio Nelson on Nevis, Frances Nisbet was a young widow with a five-year old son. Nelson and she were married in Nevis in 1787. A copy of the marriage certificate is on display at the Saint John Figtree Parish Anglican Church in Nevis.

Eulalie Spence (1894–1981), pioneer playwright of the Harlem Renaissance, was born on Nevis on 11 June 1894. She and her family moved to New York in 1902. She wrote fourteen plays, including "Fools Errand" which ran on Broadway in 1927. Her three act play, "The Whipping" was optioned by Paramount Studios, but never made into a film. Spence is famous for having introduced an affirming image of black women into early American drama, using her unique mix of folk art and political race drama. Several of her plays won awards.

Elquemedo Willett, born 1 May 1953, famous Nevisian cricket player and former Leeward Islands and West Indies left-arm spinner, was the first Leeward Islander to play Test cricket for the West Indies in 1973, when he was 19 years old. He was inducted into the Nevis Sports Museum Hall of Fame in 2005.

Cicely Tyson, born on 19 December 1933, Oscar-nominated in 1972, former wife of Miles Davis and winner of multiple Emmy Awards, is of Nevisian descent. Both her parents emigrated from Nevis to Harlem, New York.

Rupert Crosse, the first African American to be nominated for an Academy Award as Best Supporting Actor is of Nevisian descent.

Constance Baker Motley (1921–2005), who as a young lawyer represented Martin Luther King, Jr., has Nevisian heritage and owned a home in Brown Hill, Nevis, near her ancestral home. Both her mother and father emigrated from Nevis. She attained fame as the first African-American woman appointed as a United States Federal judge, the first African-American woman elected to the New York State Senate and the first woman to serve as Manhattan borough president. She was also the first African-American woman to serve on the federal judiciary (1966), as well as the first African-American and the first woman to become Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (1982).

Melanie Brown, the former "Scary Spice" of the Spice Girls, born on 29 May 1975 in Leeds, has a Nevisian father.

United States Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer has a vacation home on Nevis. In February 2012 he was robbed in his home at machete-point.